Has it been jobs or politics first for Perry's tenure?

Nobody would accuse Gov. Rick Perry of being too subtle — and certainly not anyone who saw him Monday in San Antonio announcing that he wouldn't run for re-election in 2014.

If you were watching on TV, maybe you noticed those hulking, yellow Caterpillar earthmovers parked behind him.

Caterpillar decided to open a $170 million engine plant in Seguin in 2008 with plenty of coaxing from the governor's office — and a $10 million grant from Texas Enterprise Fund. That's the controversial pot of money for closing business relocation and expansion deals that Perry controls, alongside House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

With Monday's heavy equipment demo, Perry made clear that job creation is what he most wants to be remembered for, much more so than, say, tighter restrictions on abortion. It'll also be a major campaign theme if he runs for president in 2016, just like it was in 2012.

That made San Antonio the natural setting for his announcement. (Sorry, Seguin — you'rea little too far out of the way.)

Perry won his first major jobs-generating victory in 2003 when Toyota decided to build a pickup plant on the city's South Side. Perry and his staff had been deeply involved in recruiting the automaker, and the success prompted him to overhaul the way the state chased after big employers. He folded the state's economic development arm into his office and asked the Legislature to create the Texas Enterprise Fund.

Mario Hernandez, president of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, said Perry's office has had a hand in San Antonio's largest projects since then, including Petco, Kohl's, Nationwide Insurance and Medtronic — which got TEF grants pegged to job targets. (The results: mixed.)

Also, one of every 10 leads that EDF follows up on comes from Perry's staff.

Yet Hernandez isn't particularly worried about Texas' jobs prospects when Perry leaves office in 17 months or so. Neither is J. Bruce Bugg Jr., chairman of the Bank of San Antonio as well as the Bexar County Performing Arts Foundation.

Perry appointed Bugg to head up the nonprofit Texas Economic Development Corp. in December, and asked him to devise a plan to streamline how the state fosters job creation.

“I don't see any governor coming in after Gov. Perry and, having seen his success with job creation, not being receptive to making it even better,” he said.

Bugg has been meeting with economic development interests around the state, and is still putting his plan together. However it comes out — he won't discuss any details — the changes probably will require the Legislature to take action in 2015.

He attended Perry's event Monday at the Holt Cat dealership, standing next to its proprietor, Peter Holt. (Holt, owner of the San Antonio Spurs and a longtime contributor to Perry's campaigns, worked his connections at Caterpillar to help make the deal happen.)

Bugg said he didn't know what Perry would say, that he doesn't move in the upper reaches of Texas politics.

However, he and Perry were traveling companions in February. Bugg was part of the entourage the governor took to California to woo companies fed up that state's tax code and regulatory structure. During the scouting expedition, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown famously referred to a radio ad campaign targeting California businesses as “barely a fart.”

Hernandez also made the trip, and said it resulted in six prospects for San Antonio — mostly small manufacturers turned off by California's environmental regs and high income taxes. Two of the leads, Hernandez said, “are very active.”

Bugg described how Perry dealt with executives in one-on-one meetings.

“He exudes optimism when you sit down and talk with him,” Bugg said. “He listens very carefully to these companies' concerns. He can talk specifics about a range of different businesses.”

Yet the trip — and subsequent ones Perry took to Illinois, New York and Connecticut (where he dropped in on gun maker Colt's Manufacturing Co., a prospect for San Antonio that I wrote about last week) — also worked as a political stunt, a clever way to showcase Perry's small-government philosophy by expounding it in Democratic strongholds.

When I asked Bugg about that perception, he was adamant.

“Gov. Perry and I have never talked about his political aspirations,” he said. “He's never said, 'Bruce, this would be good for my political career — never, never, never.”

But that's the thing with Perry: You just never know where the politics begin and end in his dealings, even when they're intended to bring jobs to Texas.

Greg Jefferson is business editor of the San Antonio Express-News. You can reach him at (210) 250-3259 or gjefferson@express-news.net.

Greg Jefferson re-joined the San Antonio Express-News in December 2012, just in time to launch the newspaper's Sunday business section and stand-alone business pages on Monday. He also writes a weekly column on business and the city's economy.

Previously, Greg co-founded, edited and wrote for Plaza de Armas, an online journal of politics, business and the arts in San Antonio.

At the Express-News, in an eight-year run before PdA, he covered business, City Hall and politics, led the politics and government team as an assistant city editor, and wrote a Saturday column on local politics.

He also did two stints at the San Antonio Business Journal after moving to Texas from his home state of Indiana in 2000.